Who is feeding the embryo while the placenta is under construction?

We all know the placenta as this life giving organ, the first to develop in pregnancy; a critical connection between mother and fetus that sends food and oxygen to the baby and eliminates the fetal waste products. Only recently did I trip over the fact that it takes a minute to make this incredible organ.

How long does it take and while its under construction?

How exactly is the embryo and then fetus being fed ?

In fact, it takes about eight or nine weeks for your body to build a placenta and then a few weeks to get the hookup to the mother's body, which takes us to roughly the end of the first trimester, 10 to 12 weeks or so.

So if that's the case, you might be wondering: how is that embryo getting food for the first 12 weeks? Doesn't it need food to grow and oxygen maybe. What are we doing with the waste? How is all this managed before the placenta is the onsite perfect and all powerful fetal growth manager in a word, womb milk, or histotroph

This is the subject of today's episode.

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